


Aftermath

by accidentallymelted



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-05
Updated: 2013-09-05
Packaged: 2017-12-25 16:35:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/955353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/accidentallymelted/pseuds/accidentallymelted
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Crimson Typhoon and Cherno Alpha go down, there is not enough time for mourning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so disclaimer - this fic is fairly self-indulgent, in that I really wanted more ladies in the Pacific Rim universe so I wrote some. And some of this was written to silence the little engineer in my head that would not shut up about the Jaegers going to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean (I couldn't shut it up entirely, but I tried). So very unbeta'd, all mistakes are my own (and please tell me where they are so I can fix them.). Also for the Aftermath square on my Jaegercon Bingo card, but I don't know if we're still doing that?

When Crimson Typhoon and Cherno Alpha go down, there is not enough time for mourning. Instead, the crews who would normally be working on repairing those Jaegers get drafted into service fixing Gipsy Danger and Striker Eureka, multiple shifts working around the clock in order to have the two remaining Jaegers functional as soon as possible. Elena and Cathy were two of the mechanics responsible for Crimson’s third arm – they get moved to Gipsy’s left knee, which had been damaged when she fell from the sky. It makes sense, in a way – joints are joints, after all, and working on an older Jaeger is theoretically less confusing than working on a newer Jaeger.

Gipsy’s damage is not as severe as it could have been, if she’d had a lesser pair of pilots. No one is saying anything about Mako Mori and Raleigh Becket now, not after they proved themselves by destroying two Kaiju in one night. Of course, the relative silence of the Shatterdome is also the result of the complete devastation that was the loss of Crimson and Cherno.

Elena looks over at Cathy from where she’s soldering connections in Gipsy’s knee, and sees the tears running down her face. She keeps blinking them away angrily, not looking up from her work testing connections and tearing out bad ones. There is hardly a dry eye among the workers that she sees, most of whom have been pulled from either Crimson or Cherno’s old crews. Her eyes happen to catch on the empty bay where Crimson ought to be and she feels tears well up in her own eyes, but she pushes them down ruthlessly and focuses on her soldering. The connections aren’t that small but they’re small enough, and having tears in her eyes means she might make a mistake. Making mistakes, at this point, will lead to Gipsy’s failure and probably the end of the entire planet.

It’s not an easy burden to have resting on your shoulders, even if it’s not just your shoulders it’s resting on. Elena feels the weight every moment that she’s working and heavier every moment that she’s not, because she knows she should be resting but she should also be out there helping, working harder and faster and making Gipsy better.

Like Mako. Mako, who piloted Gipsy and killed two Kaiju, but who came up to Headquarters not an hour after she could have gotten out of her suit, trailing Raleigh Becket and Marshal Pentecost and arguing with Mr. Choi about how best to outfit the Jaegers for a deep sea mission.

“I know what they have been designed for, Mr. Choi, I have read the specifications,” Elena heard her say, sounding a mixture of respectful and annoyed. “I am telling you that unless we make these modifications,“ here she brandished a clipboard at him, “the Jaegers will fail. The pressures that the ocean exerts at that depth are simply too great for the current design to work.”

“Miss Mori,” Mr. Choi began, but she cut him off.

“Do not Miss Mori me, Mr. Choi. I had Dr. Gottlieb check my numbers. My math is correct.”

Mr. Choi looked irritated but he also took the clipboard. Elena wasn’t sure whether or not it was Mako’s reasoning or the glares that he was getting from Marshal Pentecost and Raleigh, both of whom were pointedly Not Hovering around Mako. He glanced down at the clipboard and his frown deepened but he stopped arguing and instead started barking orders into his radio. Mako looked serene and exhausted, and Raleigh came up behind her and put his arm around her shoulder.

“We both need rest,” he said, glancing over at the Marshal, who nodded a curt dismissal, looking over Mr. Choi’s shoulder at the clipboard. He called a question after Mako in Japanese, which she answered in the same language. Elena didn’t speak much Japanese, as there hadn’t been a call for her to learn. She’d been recruited by the PPDC straight out of school because of her knack with robotics, and she’d picked up Mandarin working on Crimson, although not terribly well. Cathy was constantly making fun of her accent.

The modifications they were given, after the rest of the engineers had a look at Mako’s suggestions and came up with a list, were not terribly complicated but they were different. Elena was fiercely glad that they were different, they were new, because that meant that she was forced to pay attention to what she was doing and that her mind didn’t have time to wander off into grief.

When they finished their shift, Elena and Cathy headed back to their room. Cathy collapsed onto the bed while Elena paced, exhausted but so wired she was unable to settle down. Cathy watched her pace for a while before holding out her hand.

“’Lena it’s late,” she said, yawning, “and we have more work to do in about eight hours. Come sleep?”

“I can’t,” Elena said, shaking her head and pacing faster. “I can’t, every time I close my eyes I just see it happening again-“

Cathy propped herself up on her elbows and frowned at her. “I see it too,” she said. “I see it too but ‘Lena, it’s not going to go away. Not even if you wear yourself out. It will still have happened. We couldn’t help it, it wasn’t our fault. Come to bed,” she said, her voice cracking a little bit. “Come sleep, or if you can’t sleep just stay close to me? I don’t want to be alone tonight.”

Elena turned, and Cathy’s eyes were dark and tired and haunted. She came over and laid down beside her, pulling her into her arms. “I’m here,” she muttered into Cathy’s hair. “I’m here and I’m not going anywhere, not ever.”

“Good,” Cathy said, leaving a tired kiss on her collarbone. “Set the alarm, would you? We need to grab something to eat before the next shift.”

“Got it,” Elena said, rolling over a little to set the alarm before rolling back over and curling herself around Cathy, clinging tightly. She didn’t think that she would be able to sleep, her mind still going a million miles an hour, but her exhaustion caught up to her and they were both asleep in moments.

**Author's Note:**

> I can also be found at accidentallymelted on Tumblr, where I reblog a lot of things and occasionally post writing updates, snippets or requests for prompts. Feel free to come and say hi!


End file.
